Reporting on the unveiling of a plaque to in Baillieborough, Co. Cavan, Tony Canavan (Bite-Sized History – HI Sept/Oct.) says that Francis Sheehy Skeffington was “executed on the order of Captain J.C.Bowen-Colthurst.”
Skeffington was not charged before any tribunal authorised to try or condemn prisoners nor have its sentences executed. He was shot by a squad from the Guardhouse at Portobello Barracks, probably led by a lowly Corporal, too cowed or too cowardly to disobey a clearly unlawful command from Colthurst, a junior officer.
Prior to this Colthurst had led soldiers, including a sergeant, a sufficiently experienced NCO to appreciate the difference between fighting armed men and the cold-blooded killing of unarmed civilians on an orgy of murder.
The only British official, political or military, who came out of these events with honour was Major Sir Francis Vane.
Yours faithfully
Donal Kennedy
Donal
having wet my appetite for historical information you might be good enough to expand some more detail on Major Sir Francis Vane.
Many Thanks
Jack Britton
See BLOG “Forgotten History of the 1916 Rising?”
See “FORGOTTEN HERO OF 1916 RISING?” a BLOG posted in January 2016.